Brand India Ranks 31st, US Loses Top Slot to Germany

By that token, India still has a long way to go in terms of international image in which manufacturing prowessplays only a small role.

An annual nation branding survey by research firm Anholt-GfK, which measures the reputation of countries, ranks India at 31st among 50 countries, with Germany overtaking the US for top spot in 2014.

The study measures global perceptions, based on 23 different attributes that make up six overall dimensions on which national image is based: exports, governance, culture, people, tourism and immigration or investment.

China ranks 12th in exports even though it is a low-cost manufacturing superpower; India is 26th.

Xiaoyan Zhao, senior vice-president and director of Nation i Branding Index at GfK, said:China ranks very low in terms of exports; the goodwill garnered with culture, where it ranks a high 8th, has not caught up.

India, at 23rd, also ranks higher with respect to its culture than its overall 31st ranking.

Cultural metric includes heritage, tourist landmarks etc. Where both China and India lose out is in terms of governance, where they stand 46th and 42nd, respectively , with India faring marginally better than China.

But India's overall 31st rating ­­ between Czech Republic at 30 and Turkey at 32­­ is the worst among BRICS nations.

Whatever the reality is, the top ten nation brands are all OECD countries, with the US ceding ground to Germany for the first time since the survey began in 2009.

Germany benefited not only from the sports prowess at the FIFA World Cup, but also by solidifying its leadership in Europe through a robust economy and political stewardship.

Germany's score gains in the areas of `honest and competent government', `investment climate', and `social equality' are among the largest it achieved across all the aspects covered by the NBI 2014 survey .

The US, however, has shown the least impressive NBI gain among developed nations.

While it is still No. 1 in several areas, including creativity , contemporary culture, and educational institutions, its role in global peace and security only ranks 19th out of 50 nations.

In a year of international confrontations, US lost ground where tension was felt most acutely .

Both Russia and Egypt have downgraded the US in an unprecedented way , particularly in their perception of US commitment to global peace and security , and in their assessment of the competence of the US government.